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February 4
This day marks the approximate midpoint of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and of summer in the Southern Hemisphere (starting the season at the December solstice). Events * 211 – Following the death of Rome's Emperor Septimius Severus at Eboracum (modern York, England) while preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians, the empire is left in the control of his two quarrelling sons, Caracalla and Geta, instructing them to make peace. * 960 – The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries. *1169 – A strong earthquake struck the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania. *1454 – In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master. *1555 – John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England. *1703 – In Edo (now Tokyo), all but one of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death. *1758 – Macapá, Brazil is founded. *1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College. *1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French First Republic. It will be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802. *1797 – The Riobamba earthquake strikes Ecuador, causing up to 40,000 casualties. *1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States. *1810 – The Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe. *1820 – The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the 2-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and 2 ships. *1825 – The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal. *1846 – The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley. *1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt. *1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America. *1899 – The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila. *1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Harbin, Manchuria, falls to Japan. *1938 – Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Armed Forces High Command. *1941 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops. *1945 – World War II: Santo Tomas Internment Camp is liberated from Japanese authority. * 1945 – World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. * 1945 – World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations. *1948 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. *1961 – The Angolan War of Independence and the greater Portuguese Colonial War begin. *1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133. *1967 – Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft. *1969 – Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. *1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California. * 1974 – M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed. *1975 – Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China. *1976 – In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000. *1977 – A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency's history. *1992 – A coup d'état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez. *1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73. *1998 – The 5.9 Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme. *1999 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city. *2000 – The World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium, Charter of Paris is signed by the President of France, Jacques Chirac and the Director General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, initiating World Cancer Day which is held on February 4 every year.https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000119111 *2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopts a new constitution, becoming a loose confederacy between Montenegro and Serbia. *2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg. *2015 – TransAsia Airways Flight 235 with 58 people on board, en route from the Taiwanese capital Taipei to Kinmen, crashes into the Keelung River just after take-off, killing 43 people. Births *1447 – Lodovico Lazzarelli, Italian poet (d. 1500) *1495 – Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1535) * 1495 – Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (d. 1568) *1505 – Mikołaj Rej, Polish poet and author (d. 1580) *1575 – Pierre de Bérulle, French cardinal and theologian, founded the French school of spirituality (d. 1629) *1646 – Hans Erasmus Aßmann, German poet and politician (d. 1699) *1676 – Giacomo Facco, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1753) *1677 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German violinist and composer (d. 1731) *1688 – Pierre de Marivaux, French author and playwright (d. 1763) *1725 – Dru Drury, English entomologist and author (d. 1804) *1740 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (d. 1795) *1778 – Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist, mycologist, and academic (d. 1841) *1799 – Almeida Garrett, Portuguese journalist and author (d. 1854) *1818 – Emperor Norton, San Francisco eccentric and visionary (d. 1880) *1831 – Oliver Ames, American financier and politician, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895) *1848 – Jean Aicard, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1921) *1849 – Jean Richepin, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1926) *1862 – Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (d. 1942) *1865 – Abe Isoo, Japanese minister and politician (d. 1949) *1868 – Constance Markievicz, Irish revolutionary and first woman elected to the UK House of Commons (d. 1927) *1871 – Friedrich Ebert, German lawyer and politician, 1st President of Germany (d. 1925) *1872 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian and Macedonian revolutionary activist (d. 1903) *1873 – Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian shot putter and discus thrower (d. 1905) *1875 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist and engineer (d. 1953) *1877 – Eddie Cochems, American football player and coach (d. 1953) *1881 – Eulalio Gutiérrez, Mexican general and politician, President of Mexico (d. 1939) * 1881 – Fernand Léger, French painter and sculptor (d. 1955) *1883 – Reinhold Rudenberg, German-American inventor and a pioneer of electron microscopy (d. 1961) *1891 – M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, 2nd Speaker of the Lok Sabha (d. 1978) *1892 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and academic (d. 1964) *1895 – Nigel Bruce, English actor (d. 1953) *1896 – Friedrich Glauser, Austrian-Swiss author (d. 1938) * 1896 – Friedrich Hund, German physicist and academic (d. 1997) *1897 – Ludwig Erhard, German soldier and politician, 2nd Chancellor of West Germany (d. 1977) *1899 – Virginia M. Alexander, American physician and founder of the Aspiranto Health Home(d. 1949) *1900 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (d. 1977) *1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (d. 1974) * 1902 – Hartley Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, German-English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (d. 2003) *1903 – Alexander Imich, Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, and academic (d. 2014) *1904 – MacKinlay Kantor, American author and screenwriter (d. 1977) *1905 – Hylda Baker, English comedian, actress and music hall performer (d. 1986) *1906 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian (d. 1945) * 1906 – Letitia Dunbar-Harrison, Irish librarian (d. 1994) * 1906 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer and academic, discovered Pluto (d. 1997) *1908 – Julian Bell, English poet and academic (d. 1937) *1912 – Ola Skjåk Bræk, Norwegian banker and politician, Norwegian Minister of Industry (d. 1999) * 1912 – Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian-American conductor (d. 1993) * 1912 – Byron Nelson, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 2006) *1913 – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005) * 1913 – Richard Seaman, English race car driver (d. 1939) *1914 – Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author and publisher (d. 1980) *1915 – William Talman, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1968) * 1915 – Norman Wisdom, English singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2010) *1917 – Yahya Khan, Pakistan general and politician, 3rd President of Pakistan (d. 1980) *1918 – Ida Lupino, English-American actress and director (d. 1995) * 1918 – Luigi Pareyson, Italian philosopher and author (d. 1991) *1920 – Janet Waldo, American actress and voice artist (d. 2016) *1921 – Betty Friedan, American author and feminist (d. 2006) * 1921 – Lotfi Zadeh, Iranian-American mathematician and computer scientist and founder of fuzzy logic (d. 2017) *1923 – Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (d. 2013) * 1923 – James Dibble, Australian journalist (d. 2010) *1925 – Russell Hoban, American author and illustrator (d. 2011) * 1925 – Stanley Karnow, American journalist and historian (d. 2013) * 1925 – Christopher Zeeman, English mathematician and academic (d. 2016) *1926 – Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 2014) * 1926 – Dave Sands, Australian boxer (d. 1952) *1927 – Rolf Landauer, German-American physicist and academic (d. 1999) *1928 – Oscar Cabalén, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1967) * 1928 – Osmo Antero Wiio, Finnish journalist, academic, and politician (d. 2013) *1929 – Paul Burlison, American rockabilly guitarist (d. 2003) *1930 – Tibor Antalpéter, Hungarian volleyball player and diplomat, Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom (d. 2012) * 1930 – Arthur E. Chase, American businessman and politician (d. 2015) * 1930 – Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (d. 2015) *1931 – Isabel Martínez de Perón, Argentinian dancer and politician, 41st President of Argentina *1935 – Wallis Mathias, Pakistani cricketer (d. 1994) * 1935 – Martti Talvela, Finnish opera singer (d. 1989) * 1935 – Collin Wilcox, American actress (d. 2009) *1936 – David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (d. 2014) * 1936 – Claude Nobs, Swiss businessman, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival (d. 2013) *1937 – David Newman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2003) *1938 – Frank J. Dodd, American businessman and politician, president of the New Jersey Senate (d. 2010) *1939 – Stan Lundine, American lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of New York *1940 – George A. Romero, American director and producer (d. 2017) *1941 – Russell Cooper, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of Queensland * 1941 – Ron Rangi, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1988) * 1941 – Jiří Raška, Czech skier and coach (d. 2012) * 1941 – John Steel, English drummer *1943 – Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese journalist and politician, 2nd President of the Regional Government of Madeira * 1943 – Wanda Rutkiewicz, Lithuanian-Polish mountaineer (d. 1992) * 1943 – Ken Thompson, American computer scientist and programmer, co-developed the B programming language *1944 – Florence LaRue, American singer and actress *1947 – Dennis C. Blair, American admiral and politician, 3rd Director of National Intelligence * 1947 – Dan Quayle, American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 44th Vice President of the United States *1948 – Alice Cooper, American singer-songwriter * 1948 – Rod Grams, American journalist and politician (d. 2013) * 1948 – Mienoumi Tsuyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler *1949 – Michael Beck, American actor * 1949 – Rasim Delić, Bosnian general (d. 2010) *1951 – Patrick Bergin, Irish actor * 1951 – Phil Ehart, American rock drummer and songwriter *1952 – Jenny Shipley, New Zealand educator and politician, 36th Prime Minister of New Zealand * 1952 – Thomas Silverstein, American prisoner, founder and former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang *1955 – Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak politician, Prime Minister of Slovakia *1957 – Don Davis, American composer and conductor *1958 – Tomasz Pacyński, Polish journalist and author (d. 2005) *1959 – Christian Schreier, German footballer and manager * 1959 – Lawrence Taylor, American football player and sportscaster *1960 – Siobhan Dowd, English author and activist (d. 2007) * 1960 – Adrienne King, American actress, dancer, and painter * 1960 – Jonathan Larson, American composer and playwright (d. 1996) *1961 – Stewart O'Nan, American novelist * 1961 – Denis Savard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach *1962 – Clint Black, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer * 1962 – Stephen Hammond, English banker and politician *1963 – Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss skier *1965 – Jerome Brown, American football player (d. 1992) *1966 – Tony Butterfield, Australian rugby league player * 1966 – Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist *1967 – Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995) *1970 – Gabrielle Anwar, English actress *1971 – Rob Corddry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter * 1971 – Eric Garcetti, American lieutenant and politician, 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles *1972 – Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian and television host * 1972 – Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer and manager *1973 – Oscar De La Hoya, American boxer * 1973 – James Hird, Australian footballer and coach * 1973 – Manny Legace, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster *1975 – Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer-songwriter and actress *1977 – Gavin DeGraw, American singer-songwriter *1979 – Giorgio Pantano, Italian race car driver *1980 – Raimonds Vaikulis, Latvian basketball player *1981 – Jason Kapono, American basketball player * 1981 – Johan Vansummeren, Belgian cyclist *1982 – Chris Sabin, American wrestler * 1982 – Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player * 1982 – Tomas Vaitkus, Lithuanian cyclist *1983 – Lee Stempniak, American ice hockey player * 1983 – Rebecca White, Australian politician *1984 – Sandeep Acharya, Indian singer (d. 2013) * 1984 – Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer *1986 – Maximilian Götz, German race car driver * 1986 – Mahmudullah Riyad, Bangladeshi cricketer *1987 – Darren O'Dea, Irish footballer * 1987 – Lucie Šafářová, Czech tennis player *1988 – Carly Patterson, American gymnast and singer *1993 – Bae Noo-ri, South Korean actress *1998 – Maximilian Wöber, Austrian footballer Deaths * 211 – Septimius Severus, Roman emperor (b. 145) * 708 – Pope Sisinnius (b. 650) * 856 – Rabanus Maurus, Frankish archbishop and theologian (b. 780) * 870 – Ceolnoth, archbishop of Canterbury *1169 – John of Ajello, Bishop of Catania *1498 – Antonio del Pollaiolo, Italian artist (b. 1429/1433) *1505 – Jeanne de Valois, daughter of Louis XI of France (b. 1464) *1508 – Conrad Celtes, German poet and scholar (b. 1459) *1555 – John Rogers, English clergyman and translator (b. 1505) *1590 – Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1517) *1615 – Giambattista della Porta, Italian playwright and scholar (b. 1535) *1617 – Lodewijk Elzevir, Dutch publisher, co-founded the House of Elzevir (b. 1546) *1713 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English philosopher and politician (b. 1671) *1774 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701) *1781 – Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer (b. 1737) *1799 – Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect and educator (b. 1728) *1843 – Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (b. 1770) *1891 – Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, Roman Catholic archbishop and Mexican politician who served as regent during the Second Mexican Empire (1863-1864) (b. 1816) *1905 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (b. 1841) *1926 – İskilipli Âtıf Hodja, Turkish author and scholar (b. 1875) *1928 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853) *1933 – Archibald Sayce, English linguist and educator (b. 1846) *1940 – Nikolai Yezhov, Russian police officer and politician (b. 1895) *1943 – Frank Calder, English-Canadian ice hockey player and journalist (b. 1877) *1944 – Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian author and translator (b. 1872) *1956 – Savielly Tartakower, Russian-French chess player, journalist, and author (b. 1887) *1958 – Henry Kuttner, American author and screenwriter (b. 1915) *1959 – Una O'Connor, Irish-American actress (b. 1880) *1968 – Neal Cassady, American novelist and poet (b. 1926) *1970 – Louise Bogan, American poet and critic (b. 1897) *1974 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist, mathematician, and academic (b. 1894) *1975 – Louis Jordan, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (b. 1908) *1982 – Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935) * 1982 – Georg Konrad Morgen, German lawyer and judge (b. 1909) *1983 – Karen Carpenter, American singer (b. 1950) *1987 – Liberace, American singer-songwriter and pianist, (b. 1919) * 1987 – Meena Keshwar Kamal, Afghan activist, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (b. 1956) * 1987 – Carl Rogers, American psychologist and academic (b. 1902) *1990 – Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (b. 1915) *1992 – John Dehner, American actor (b. 1915) *1995 – Patricia Highsmith, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1921) *2000 – Carl Albert, American lawyer and politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1908) *2002 – Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg (b. 1907) *2003 – Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algerian pharmacist and politician (b. 1920) *2005 – Ossie Davis, American actor, director, and playwright (b. 1917) *2006 – Betty Friedan, American author and activist (b. 1921) *2007 – José Carlos Bauer, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1925) * 2007 – Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian-English poet and translator (b. 1959) * 2007 – Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (b. 1934) * 2007 – Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-American painter and sculptor (b. 1922) *2008 – Augusta Dabney, American actress (b. 1918) * 2008 – Stefan Meller, Polish academic and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (b. 1942) *2010 – Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (b. 1924) * 2010 – Helen Tobias-Duesberg, Estonian-American composer (b. 1919) *2011 – Martial Célestin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Haiti (b. 1913) *2012 – István Csurka, Hungarian journalist and politician (b. 1934) * 2012 – Florence Green, English soldier (b. 1901) * 2012 – Robert Daniel, American farmer, soldier, and politician (b. 1936) * 2012 – Mike deGruy, American director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1951) *2013 – Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (b. 1932) * 2013 – Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (b. 1941) *2014 – Keith Allen, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (b. 1923) * 2014 – Eugenio Corti, Italian soldier, author, and playwright (b. 1921) * 2014 – Dennis Lota, Zambian footballer (b. 1973) *2015 – Wes Cooley, American soldier and politician (b. 1932) * 2015 – Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American colonel and pilot (b. 1925) *2016 – Edgar Mitchell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1930) *2017 – Steve Lang, Canadian bass player (b. 1949) * 2017 – Bano Qudsia, Pakistani writer (b. 1928) *2018 – John Mahoney, English-American actor, voice artist, and comedian (b. 1940) *2019 – Matti Nykänen, Finnish Olympic-winning ski jumper and singer (b. 1963) Holidays and observances *Christian feast day: **Andrew Corsini **Gilbert of Sempringham **John de Brito **Blessed Rabanus Maurus **Rimbert **Veronica **February 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) *Day of the Armed Struggle (Angola) *Earliest day on which Ash Wednesday can fall, while March 10 is the latest; celebrated on the first day of Lent (Christianity) *Independence Day (Sri Lanka) *Rosa Parks Day (California and Missouri, United States) *World Cancer Day References External links * BBC: On This Day * * Today in Canadian History Category:Days of the year Category:February